Robert Wallace and Lindsay Smythe

00:00 Equity

00:06 My name is Lindsay Smythe. I'm 30 years old is January 9th 2010. We are in Yuma, Arizona and I'm here with Rob Wallace. Who's my boyfriend?

00:17 And my name is Rob Wallace. I'm 45 years old. Today is January 9th 2010 here in Yuma, Arizona and I am Lindsay Smythe boyfriend.

00:28 So I guess we'll just kind of start early. What do you remember about your parents where they from born and raised in Pasadena, California?

00:44 Had a very interesting long life is what I call an overachiever landed up with numerous degrees from numerous universities including Caltech Stanford West point where he graduated number three in his class got to choose whatever branch of service he wanted. He chose the Air Force. He actually taught at the Air Force Academy top political science there.

01:11 You did three tours in Vietnam fighter pilot and did some very important missions their notably which in 1968 the battle of the Ia Drang Valley. He helped Lieutenant General Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway write the book We Were Soldiers once and young which was then made into a movie We Were Soldiers once with starring.

01:41 Mel Gibson when he

01:47 You got out of the Air Force. He went back to school at USD and got a law degree and practiced family law for little or no money. He did it because he loved the job not for the money until he passed away.

02:01 My mother was born in Lewiston, Idaho an only child.

02:09 Aspired to get out of the small town in Idaho and landed up going to Stanford where he met her where she met my dad and they got married. She majored in journalism work for newspapers.

02:25 When my father was off at War stayed at home to care of the children did a fine job at that and

02:33 Once he came home we were living in Virginia. My dad was working at the Pentagon and she worked for the Pakistan Embassy.

02:42 And

02:44 Basically, she is now living in Albuquerque New Mexico with her husband of the last 20 years L Dozier. So you got to live lots of different places growing up for your tell us a little bit about Billy. Well Italy a little bit scary when I move there. I was I believe 6 or 7 years old and really bad when it comes to remembering dates and times but we moved to Naples Italy because my dad was stationed there and I found myself in a country where I didn't speak the language didn't understand the culture and the only thing that I didn't understand was Italian food was insanely good.

03:23 I did go to an All-American school because most of them are military basically, so I was able to communicate but on my off time. I spent a lot of time out and about and Italy it was semi-rural where I live. So I spend a lot of time wandering the fields in the woods in The Orchards and

03:47 I guess I was a little bit of a troublemaker got myself in quite a bit of trouble over there to include. Oh gosh burning my face because I took some fireworks and took him apart and landed up blaming it on some Italian kids. And of course my father being the responsible one reported it to the Carbonaro which were the local police officers. And so they went through a three-week investigation interviewing all of the local Farm children. And finally my father being as intelligent as he was did his own investigation found out where I had performed this heinous act.

04:28 Showed me that I was wrong made me apologize to the police officers and to every family that was interviewed.

04:37 Probably not a harsh enough punishment. Probably another year down the road found myself getting in more trouble was mixed up with three brothers. None of which to remember their names.

04:50 But they were building a three-story Warehouse with the top story being office space the bottom two stories were all open and still under construction was the top story The Bottom story was nearly full of returnable glass water bottles and these glass water bottles were the five gallon large water bottles the doors on the warehouse were just steel grating with by 6 inch holes.

05:20 Which we four found were plenty big enough to throw rocks through and break water bottles.

05:27 This however didn't satisfy our delinquency. So we found a way upstairs and the holes that were in the floor for the future Plumbing look straight down onto these water bottles. So we landed up dragging steel and concrete pipes up there and torpedoing them through the holes breaking approximately in 1975 $2,000 worth of returnable water bottles.

05:55 Much to our dismay. We looked out the window and saw the neighborhoods of Gardiner looking up at us.

06:02 He recognized as we recognized him, but we figured it was four against one. We could take a shortcut home since he was in his Piaggio, which is a little three-wheeled vehicle. He had to take the long way home. So we ran as fast as we could of course, it's seven years old. We didn't have a very good concept of time and space and he beat us there and told on us, of course.

06:26 Make a long story short. The owner of the warehouse was using that legitimate business to

06:35 How would I say launder illegal monies obtained through the Naples Mafia.

06:42 So we then learns that we were now mixed up with the Naples Mafia and we owed them considerable sum of money.

06:53 My house was visited when my father was away is just my mom and my sister and I by the nephew of the Dawn who threatened my mother and and then left my father heard of this came home.

07:11 And

07:15 The nephew came back

07:17 When my father was there and my father started to get very physical with him and the dawn showed up. He was out in the car and basically, everything down and said we don't really want any issues here. If you could just pay your share of the money's, you know, we drop everything.

07:36 And so of course that was how it went. My share was $500 at 7 years old. I had to work that off at a dollar an hour.

07:46 After school and all summer long. So 500 hours of hard labor and Mindless to save a little hard to sit down for a while.

07:56 That didn't totally end my delinquency and Italy.

08:01 Tried to burn down a garbage truck. Is it past by one time?

08:07 How I ever survived I have no idea. My parents must have been very forgiving.

08:12 But

08:15 Other than that, I remember Italy for its architecture. I remember the people once I got old enough to actually care.

08:25 History is is so ancient that it really humbles you in a few spend any time there. When did you move to, California?

08:36 Well, once we left Italy we moved to Virginia and live there for two and a half years. We moved to California 1970.

08:47 Eat, I believe you did lived on the beach lived on the beach and not literally on the beach, but my dad was given property in a small town called Leucadia, which is north of San Diego.

09:01 And the property was approximately 300 ft long by about 180 ft wide and was on the Bluffs in San Diego and hurry in Leucadia.

09:10 They basically split in split a third off of it and sold it which paid for the house being built. And that's where I went to Junior High School and High School. My bedroom window overlooks the ocean.

09:27 Which became the great big gray horizontal line in my life.

09:33 So what you do with the ocean I do with the ocean well.

09:39 I basically was still young enough to not be very logical and fearful. So I investigated the ocean and every way possible both underneath it and on top of it.

09:53 Predominantly in 79 I started surfing and spent 20 years surfing basically landed of living in San Diego for 20 years. I go to Hawaii during the summer to go surfing go down to Mexico to go surfing when I would supposedly be going to school and wake up and see that the waves were incredible. My parents are at work and I would go surfing and my delinquency still was with me. So I would Forge their signatures on my release notes for school. I did become a rather good Surfer, but had to work at my math classes because of it.

10:36 Surfing definitely was a huge love in my life. It taught me not to be afraid of moving water and big dark loud cold. Scary moving water. I remember surfing during the winter. Sometimes when the waves were

10:55 2025 ft tall and I was the only person out and dangling in the kelp beds is these waves are crashing around me.

11:05 Probably my very first recognizable coming close to death was surfing alone one time when winter and

11:16 I basically was pounded by about a 20 foot wave hit the bottom three times drug in Lenoir drug out to see some back in and took me about 30 minutes to get insured by the time I was back in sure if the water being 55u00b0, I was hypothermic completely exhausted but alive and a little wiser.

11:41 I'm calmer days. I like to spend a lot of time underneath the water. So got my scuba diving certificate and did a lot of diving and snorkeling spearfishing.

11:55 Spend a little bit of time looking for lobsters and have bologna and had one.

12:02 One great fish story that all people that ever go fishing should have a good fish story. So I'll tell this one there something called a Hawaiian sling which is about an 8 foot pole with a tri prong tip on it and a large bungee cord at the back end. It's basically a Spearfish never spear for spearfishing.

12:21 One day during the summer believe it was about 1981.

12:27 I was snorkeling by myself and saw halibut on the bottom and all I could see was his eyes in the shape of his head, but I could tell it was very large halibut. So I took a large breath cocktail the spirit back as far as I could hit the fish right behind the eyes probably about 3 in behind the eyes and I drove the spear down into the sand.

12:50 I figured this is great. This is going to be a great meal for me and my family until I found out that is halibut was about four and a half feet to 5 ft long in about 3 and 1/2 to 4 ft wide and that little spear didn't quite do it. So I had speared it hard enough so it wouldn't come out and so it took me for a ride cuz I'm holding on to the spear and it being a smart animal went up to the surface and was able to shake off of the actual Spear and then swim back down under water and get into what we called eelgrass which is this long thin grass of 5 ft long and it disappeared and I didn't find it and I was actually very upset with myself that I had wounded this animal and it has gotten away.

13:39 Have a great love for animals, and though, I don't mind hunting and fishing, you know, I do it for food. Not for pleasure.

13:49 That however is not the end of the fish story the next year. I was doing the same thing.

13:56 And I had already gotten a couple of small fish and I ran across another halibut.

14:03 And this time to halibut wasn't very well buried in the sand and I could see the two eyes and lo and behold three large white circles about 3 in behind the eyes. So I actually located the same how of it and I didn't even try and spare him this time. I figured he learned his his time. So there's my fish story.

14:25 What else did you do in California?

14:28 Oh my gosh mini things once I graduated high school.

14:39 I started going working towards my geology degree and was working for a geology firm on the side and during one of my classes. I met a gentleman by the name of Myles Kennedy who was a miraculous guitar player and had a band played surf music and just regular Rock.

15:00 He got me interested in music and so myself and three other buddies not knowing how to play any instrument not really knowing how to do much of anything decided. We are going to start a band. We were at Route GarageBand. We played in our garage and we're horrible for a long time, but we had a great interest and we practiced 5 times a week.

15:28 Eventually, I'll try to make it short got pretty good. Actually, we played together for almost 7 years and

15:37 We did a lot of our own original music did a lot of copies.

15:43 I was lead vocals rhythm guitar and probably the hardest part that I did was learning how to sing and play guitar at the same time. I can do one or the other.

15:54 But one would always sacrifice So eventually I got that down.

15:59 We

16:02 We played hard enough in San Diego to play a lot of the local clubs.

16:08 We helped initiate and we're heavily involved in a thing that we called Cactus stock. It was our version of Woodstock. We got kicked out of so many places practicing cuz we were allowed that a number of us decided to get a generator and just go out to where we go 4-wheeling and play out in middle of nowhere cuz no one could kick us out. Well that was great for the first couple of weeks and then people start showing up to drink a little beer while we were playing and then more people and more people in the more people.

16:39 Eventually, we organized it to have five or six local bands generators lights and we go out to the desert and have a great big camping party and it got 250 300 people. The last one we had out in Anza-Borrego Desert in California was upwards of 1,500 people and that brought the attention of all of the local government.

17:02 Law enforcement and Fish and Game and border patrol you name it? So we decided we needed to make it a little smaller. So we retitled it as Mex stock and we'll go down to Mexico down down on the Baja in about a four and a half hour drive South of the Border up in the mountains down the western side. We do some people that had property right on the coast. And so we broke it down to about a hundred and fifty people and we did that for a few years and probably our biggest claim to fame is we go up and play Roxy and the kids already sipping Hollywood area about the same time that some of the Glamorous bands are Glam bands were playing the hair bands like poison.

17:51 Stuff like that

17:53 So what made you decide to go into the Marine Corps?

17:57 Well, Marine Corps kind of a big change. I'm having hair down to the middle of my back to no hair at all. It was a combination of things one. I grew up in a military family has it always been something that I had considered being in San Diego. Just south of Camp Pendleton. Most populous. Marine bases my job working for the geology firm disheartened me a considerable amount because my main job was to direct bulldozers to cut the top of Hills down and fill the valleys in make flat spots for housing developments in that's where I used to like to go walk around the Wilderness, so

18:41 Didn't like my job anymore. The band was breaking up to seem like a good thing to do.

18:48 I was a little bit old to be joining the Marine Corps at least Marine Corps standard sounds 27 years old when I joined.

18:59 Felt like I needed to prove something to myself. It wasn't anybody else that I needed to prove it to.

19:06 But I work really hard when I went to bootcamp. I listen to a lot was a little more mature than most people that go in just because of my age. I just live a little bit longer. I ended up graduating honor man out of boot camp.

19:23 While I was in boot camp Saddam Hussein decided that he was going to

19:29 Invade Kuwait, so we were filled with we know where we're going course. I had a lot of training to do prior to going anywhere.

19:40 After I finish boot camp went through MCT Marine combat training and then to the school of infantry for my MOS for military occupational specialty. I was assigned as a tow missile Gunner to 4th Marines in Okinawa a one-year unaccompanied tour.

19:59 I was in Okinawa for approximately 3 weeks and then was shipped overseas to Saudi Arabia to participate in what was then Operation Desert Shield, which was the setup and preparation of all of the NATO forces trying.

20:20 Convinced Saddam that he would like to leave Kuwait without further violence. Well, he was rather determined and decided that he would stay so Operation Desert Storm took place.

20:36 The air War Began 30 days prior to the ground war we watch numerous airplanes going over head day and night we could hear feel and see the flashes of the bombing going on in Kuwait in southern Iraq all the while. We move farther and farther forward.

20:54 AZ a tow missile platoon it's probably best to be stated that you're always kind of at the tip of the spear in that.

21:08 Tanks are a main defensive Force especially way that Saddam in the Republican guard were using them and the tow missile is an anti-tank missile. So you won't infantry and Tow missiles first soap on February 21st or 22nd, and I can't remember exactly at 1991 at approximately 3 in the morning. We were informed that we would be breaching the Mine Fields and the Burnham and entering Kuwait and that we would be the very first people in our area to enter Kuwait.

21:45 How did you feel when you find that out?

21:50 Well

21:51 Referring back to the surfing incident that put me darn close to my life ending. This was a mental and emotional realization that that could very well take place and I came to very difficult grips with the fact that I may not live through the day and that was probably the most difficult thing that I've ever done.

22:19 Our own mortality is something that if we don't think about, you know, we take for granted when confronted with it and you actually have time to think about it and that's important for me to stay when you have time to think about it. It's incredibly frightening and painful.

22:36 But I was there to do a job. I was trained. Well, I had a number of men around me that counted on me doing my job. So

22:50 Hey.

22:52 Pulled myself up by the bootstraps tighten up the belt as it were and did what I was supposed to do we cross the berm at approximately 4:30 in the morning.

23:04 We reach the mind field about 20 minutes later not having taken any fire at that time.

23:11 We then had an Amtrak blue A-line charge over the Minefield and blow it which basically is supposed to make a channel that you can drive through.

23:21 That however doesn't always do the job. I was the second vehicle to go through the channel. The lead vehicle was a 50 cal vehicle with a Humvee 50 cal on top of it.

23:35 Front left tire of their Humvee hit a mine or a cluster bomb unit that hadn't gone off and blew the front end of the vehicle off. Thankfully we had well sandbag vehicle and everybody inside except for having very bad headaches and bleeding from the nose a little bit. We're able to climb up over the top of the vehicle. We pulled up straight behind them off loaded all of their personnel on and weapons systems on our vehicle anyone around them to the right. So we were then now the first vehicle into Kuwait on the southern border.

24:09 What's going through your mind during this do you have time to think not really then that's that's the other half of it when you have time to think it's it's very frightening when when you're moving fast, it's your adrenaline is keeping you going your training is directing you as to what to do, and it's really not frightening at all.

24:29 The first fire that we took was after we'd cross the Minefield and we started taking mortar fire.

24:38 We started taking some friendly fire from behind which was a regular occurrence. Not open desert was very difficult at that time with the technology to recognize other units in exactly where they were supposed to go. Everybody nowadays is so accustomed to GPS units telling you exactly where you are. Well, we used a map in a completely featureless to rain a compass and an odometer in the middle of a flat sandy desert and we were still expected to travel 300 miles and find you know, an intersection of a a dirt road which we did surprisingly

25:17 When you're being fired at I'm not sure how everybody else reacted, but it made me angry. It made me angry cuz I realized it was another human being that was trying to kill me and I took it personally.

25:32 I will say that shooting back when someone is shooting at you is an incredibly easy thing. I think it's a self-preservation more than anything else.

25:42 Once things calm down you get a large flush of adrenaline and you know, you really realize you know what you'd just gone through shake a lot totally involuntarily you shaking just cuz the adrenaline dump.

26:02 But

26:06 So what happened next step and next as we were assigned a quick mission to to draw artillery fire strangely enough artillery is a non-directional. It's an area weapon. So you normally don't get hit by the first round. So you do a lot of moving around trying to draw it. Once it hits they can tell where it comes from the neck inside and air units in and destroy the artillery to make it safe for all of the other units coming in behind you while after about a half hour of attempting this we finally were successful, but it wasn't artillery it was a mortar.

26:39 And we were actually stopped and mortar landed within the turning radius of the Humvee sprayed the vehicle with shrapnel.

26:49 And we basically did a hard right turn. And the reason that I know that it was in the turning radius is because we went through the crater when I cranked it hard, right we went back to where the other vehicles were grabbed a 50 cal vehicle to go up with us because my partner saw the Mormon actually dropped them order in the tube. So we knew where it was located now, we got permission over the radio from our commander to utilize our tow missile system if we needed to but would use a 50 cal to take out the motor mortar position. We pulled back up to the Berm or back up to the mountain II Minefield we were at

27:27 And have the 50 cal lay down a line of fire to keep the more demands head down this recorded Drew mortar fire from numerous different other locations into our area at the whole time. I was doing this I was recording what was coming over the radio and it was around me. I'd stuck a small tape recorder up onto the ceiling of the the Humvee. So I've got all of these on recording with a rather interesting but you can hear the mortars hitting around as you can hear the mark 19 and how much is a grenade launching machine gun of ours going off in 50 cal trying to keep their heads down as my partner acting is Gunnar at the time fired a tow missile and dropped it into the barn with a tow missile or where the mortar tube was and at least ended that fire coming from that direction.

28:15 We then moved from spot to spot doing the same took out another few vehicles.

28:21 Once we had gotten through that engagement we moved up to al-jubeir airport, which had been bombed from the Airforce Navy Marines considerably cleared everything all the leftover Personnel out of there.

28:38 Went up to the oil fields that were all burning completely dark in the middle of the day covered in oil it literally was raining oil and I'm in kind of a fine Mist a few engagements here and there and finally through Kuwait City, Kuwait City International Airport and then back down to the port where we sat for nearly a month cleaning everything before deployment back to Okinawa.

29:08 You mean you went to Somalia after Okinawa got stationed in 29 Palms or the stumps?

29:16 And where I got into rock climbing thankfully something to deter me but landed up going to Somalia.

29:24 Somalia for operation restore Hope was a completely different point. We went directly to Mogadishu where there isn't much need for a tow missile dinner. So we went back to the primary on West of any Marine in that is a Rifleman and basically we set up at the stadium.

29:43 Most people will remember the stadium that I'm talking about if they ever saw the movie Black Hawk Down because it's the same stadium that they show in the the movie In The discus in the movie Once the Marine Corps moved out of the stadium the Army took that area over and that's when Black Hawk Down occurred. I spent about a month and a half to two months at the stadium building bunkers going on foot and mobile patrols to the streets of Mogadishu.

30:13 I was very interesting time lot of.

30:17 In accurate sniper fire I would say the best way to put it as they were trying to hit us, but had very bad equipment very bad training.

30:28 And so I went very successful landed up moving out of bardaro to pay place called we moved up to a place called bardera, which was where most of the help agencies were the Red Cross to name. The main one. Our main job was to guide medical and food convoys to the outer Villages, which was a really good thing. I was able to meet people and actually help people actually participated in the Somali wedding, which was a wonderful wonderful experience.

31:07 General time in Africa

31:16 Honestly, I kind of take it with a grain of salt. I feel lucky but I figure I've got more of a purpose in life than to just do those things.

31:30 I still have a lot more time left.

31:35 So now you know how to fly helicopters worked as a helicopter flight instructor for a while.

31:43 Where I met you Lindsey you were one of my students actually.

31:50 But something I keep up on but someday maybe a part of my occupation again.

32:00 So do you remember what you were thinking the first time you saw me?

32:04 Oh, yeah, I remember saying I really like this girl, but I have to be professional and it was really not a very comfortable thing. So the three months or so that it took you to get your license, which was not that long. I had to behave myself and I was just very glad when you finally got your license that we could see each other.

32:28 Remember your first impression of Rob?

32:33 Yeah, I wasn't sure who was going to be my flight instructor. I had been up with another one of the instructors in the school offer like an orientation flight and he's a nice guy and I thought maybe that he was going to be my instructor but then I walked in for the first day of actual trading and Rob was sitting behind the desk and he said oh there she is.

33:00 But like Rob said it was It was kind of hard to being professional for for 3 months, but I was really glad to find out that he felt the same way I did and we've been together for a year and a half now I'm about and he's just moved down to Yuma to be with me because I live here and he lived in Phoenix and we got really tired of driving back and forth every weekend, so he decided to apply for a job down here with the Yuma Police Department and he just finished his police academy in December and that's when he moved down and now he's a police officer in training with Yuma PD, so

33:45 It's a it's an exciting New Year for us.

33:50 Is there anything you want to ask me?

33:57 Not as of now.

34:01 Okay. Well then I guess we're done.

34:06 You talk a little bit more about your experiences in in Kuwait in Somalia. Maybe just a reflection of you know things going on now.

34:16 You know, what was more of like what that was like for you mentally absolutely.

34:26 I'll combine both Desert Storm and in Somalia together and saying that.

34:33 We were deployed by our president for whatever political reasons that you know, the administration felt was necessary. I don't want to sound like a robot and say that it wasn't my job to question, but

34:51 As a marine you do what your commander and chief tells you to do.

34:55 When I was there I knew why I was there I was there because there were citizens of Kuwait that were being murdered raped and just being abused in ways that you cannot imagine unless you see it.

35:16 The American Media has to play a lot of different roles and it's probably very difficult for them to show what I saw and what I saw Justified my my my presents there and my actions and

35:34 If I could express, you know to the world anything and that is I was a warrior and I did a very good job at it, but I did enjoy it. I didn't enjoy it at all.

35:50 But

35:52 I kind of like look at it in the same way. I do with being police officer and in that.

36:00 Most people are sheep. And I don't mean that in a bad way. We just go on with our lives trying to be happy and and do the right things and not really stir up too much problems. And then there are some people that are wolves that prey on the sheep. I really hate seeing bad thing again.

36:21 But you got the third type of person and that's the Sheepdog and nobody likes to cheap dog unless the wolf is around and then they want the Sheepdog their militaries like that police forces like that. And do you want to know where I am mentally and that wouldn't you know my time and overseas, you know was what it meant to me. Is it really defines for me that I am of a personality of the Sheepdog? I don't like people that pick on other people and I'm willing to do an ugly job to try and help stop that.

37:00 I really am not looking for any kind of recognition or praise like I do very poorly with that kind of thing.

37:09 Maybe just a little understanding and that's kind of where I'm at.